Feb 1, 2009 3:18 pm US/Central
Lane Bryant Victims' Families Mark Anniversary
Case Remains Unsolved A Year Later
TINLEY PARK, Ill. (AP) ―
-
-
Five women were shot to death inside this Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park during a robbery attempt on Feb. 2, 2008.
CBS
Mike Hudek still longs for the 12:15 p.m. daily phone call with his sister. The short check-in over lunch hour was a time to recount the day's events with his best friend, get advice and indulge in a mutual love of celebrity gossip.
For the past year, Hudek has grappled with the sudden loss of his older sister, Carrie Chiuso. The former high school counselor was one of five women fatally shot inside a Lane Bryant clothing store during a botched robbery attempt on Feb. 2, 2008.
Investigators have spent 30,000 hours combing through 5,600 tips and worked closely with the sole survivor -- whose identity police have kept secret. Yet still, the lone gunman remains at large, leaving victims' families with frustration and grief.
"It's been the hardest thing you could imagine," Hudek said. "It's awful, it's like having your heart ripped out and it's constant."
Every morning for the past year, 12 investigators whose sole task is solving the crime, gather at the Tinley Park Police Department. Plastered to the walls are aerial maps of the shopping complex, enhanced digital photographs of the store and binders upon binders of paper.
Taped in one corner are photographs of the victims: Chiuso of Frankfort, Rhoda McFarland, 42, of Joliet; Connie R. Woolfolk, 37, of Flossmoor; Sarah T. Szafranski, 22, of Oak Forest; and Jennifer L. Bishop, 34, of South Bend, Ind.
"I come in every morning and I start my day by looking at the pictures of the victims. It gives you a renewed sense of cause," said Cmdr. Patrick McCain, a 21-year department veteran overseeing the investigation. "We don't discount anything. Nothing is trivial."
Their investigation has led them from hair salons on Chicago's South Side -- the gunman's hair was braided -- to nearby states for possible leads and even south to Texas to trace a victim's ties to a church. A police sketch of the gunman has been displayed on electronic billboards in the Chicago area and there's a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Authorities say here's what happened during that harrowing hour on a chilly Saturday:
Shortly after 10 a.m., a stocky man walked into the store wearing a black winter coat and black jeans with rhinestones. He acted like he was making a delivery.
He then announced it was a holdup and forced four of the women into a back room. There, they were bound with duct tape and placed face down on the floor.
Police said at some point, two more women walked into the store and were bound along with the others.
Somehow store manager Rhoda McFarland was able to get free and she called 911 from her cell phone. Her final one-word plea to dispatchers was: "Hurry."
The women were shot execution-style. One of the six lived.
Authorities have never identified the survivor, but she continues to cooperate with police.
Officials believe the gunman did not have any ties to the victims. That thought troubles Sandra McGee, the best friend of McFarland.
"He's still out there, that's not fair. His conscious should be seared. He should be disturbed, he shouldn't be able to sleep," she said. "Somebody has to have a conscious out there. They know something, they've heard something."
The tragedy has also affected the city of nearly 60,000.
Residents seem to be a little more conscious, said Edward Zabrocki, who has been Tinley Park's mayor for almost three decades.
"We were shocked into reality," he said. "You take it one day at a time and you keep moving. You have to. It's like a scab. Every once and a while, the scab is pulled off."
The plus-size clothing store was in the middle of the community's main shopping center. The inside the store is virtually untouched since the day of the shootings because it's still an active crime scene. The Lane Bryant sign has been removed and the windows are covered with black material.
A memorial service observing the one-year anniversary of the fatal shootings will be held at the Tinley Park Convention Center, 18501 Harlem Ave., Paris Room. at noon on Monday. City officials and religious leaders are scheduled to speak and offer prayer in remembrance. The memorial is free and open to the public.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
The Tattooed Ladies of Hollywood
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments